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Product Description

Tea Party for One by Leila Ataya

Acrylic on Board, 9.5″ x 7.5″

Current Exhibition at Flower Pepper Gallery: Being A Panda from May 6th to 31st, 2017

Previous Exhibitions at Flower Pepper Gallery:
- 5th Year Anniversary Show from December 10th to 27th, 2016
- LA Art Show 2016 with Flower Pepper Gallery, Booth 732, Littletopia curated by Red Truck Gallery
- Ever Surreal from August 1st to September 1st, 2015
- Xiong Mao from April 11th to May 12th, 2015
- 3rd Year Anniversary Show from December 6th, 2014 to January 6th, 2015
- Pandamonium from June 7th to 27th, 2014
- Of History And Hope from April 5th to May 2nd, 2014
- A Tribute To Our Own Fairy Tale from September 7th to October 4th, 2013
- Painted Sound from January 26th to February 28th, 2013

Artist Biography:
Born in Moscow, Russia in 1979. From a very young age Leila’s life was strongly influenced by art. She started her art education in Russia and in 1996 immigrated with her family to New Zealand where she continued to study and practice art. Leila won a number of art awards and exhibited in a large number of personal and group shows in New Zealand, USA, Italy. Her works feature in many private collections in New Zealand, Australia, England, Italy, South Korea and Russia. She has established and run Art School since 2004 that provides art classes for Adults and Children.

Artist Statement:
“My works depict a magical world, where illusion and reality blur and painted objects have powerful narratives that create intimate relationships with the viewer and lead the onlooker on to make him/her create their own story.

There is a fine line between what we consider ‘reality’ and ‘fantasy’ and these paintings can transmit and entice the viewer in a surrealistic ambiguity through the narrative of the portrayed objects. Things like mechanical butterflies, chained birds, female like creatures, caged fish etc are all dwellers of this strange world that represents the timeless struggle of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil‘, it also ties the work with religious and iconographic imagery. Fruits also have a special part to play as they have always been looked at as more than just a source of food, constantly intertwined and tangled with religion, life, sex and many other aspects of life and human nature.

These paintings are filled with double meanings and symbolic hooks of the concepts within the subjects. The represented world is like a fly-agaric; so bright, attractive and beautiful but filled with poison. Perfectly finished beautiful and luxurious objects and dwellers that look so perfect and real that they’re almost fake in their perfection to entice and seduce the viewer into another world for a close inspection of the painted creation. Trompe l’oeil painting style (life-size illusions) helps to open up communication with a wider audience. It is a tool to lure the spectators to inspect painted details closely and by spending more time in front of it become immersed in its world and to be reminded of their own inner psychological struggles that might be hidden or secret.

There is no final understanding to the works, it is the creative process of the viewer engaging with the painting through narrative. The paintings create a visual story, where the painted surface becomes a mental playground, allowing the observer to swing from image to image and complete the final story with the use of their own intellect, sense of humour and imagination.”

About Tea Party for One by Leila Ataya:
“Leila Ataya’s exquisite piece Tea Party for One is a magical world with decadent symbolism. The tea party’s solo attendee, an ethereal panda bear with jeweled butterfly wings lays idly perched in a branch with everything its heart could desire within arms reach. While a panda in reality could only dream of this royal setting, this whimsical panda’s apparent satisfaction captures the spirit of the panda. Content and at times a bit lethargic after a meal, this beautiful painting portrays some of the most endearing attributes of the panda.” – Written by Emiko Woods for the Press Release of Being a Panda